Internal combustion engine using a water-based mixture as fuel and method for operating the same

ABSTRACT

An internal combustion engine includes a cylinder with a combustion chamber and a piston selectively changing the volume of the combustion chamber. The combustion chamber receives a mixture of air, hydrogen and a liquid fuel consisting essentially of water and a flammable, preferably non-fossil, substance. The contents of the combustion chamber are ignited generating power.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional application Ser.No. 61/613,550 filed on Mar. 21, 2012 and incorporated by reference inits entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Field of Invention

This invention pertains to a method and apparatus for operating aninternal combustion engine using a fuel consisting of water and awater-soluble flammable substance that is injected into a mixture ofhydrogen and air.

Description of the Prior Art

The use of fossil fuels to run engines that used, for example, in carsand other vehicles, as well as many other engines used for a variety ofpurposes, is based on a very old concept based on the internalcombustion engines developed in the nineteenth century. Despite intenseresearch and development for alternate fuels for the last 50 years,fossil fuel derived from petroleum or natural gas, is still essentiallythe primary source of energy almost all the internal combustion enginespresently in use all over the world.

As a result, the world supply of fossil fuels have been severelydepleted creating a shortage, and the price of oil has been climbing forthe past 40 years. In addition such fuels are very polluting and somesuggest that it has either been the primary cause or has contributedsubstantially to global warming. All these factors led to many effortsto find and harness renewable energy sources other than traditionalfossil fuels. Several alternative fuels have been introduced in the pastfew years to reduce the impact of petroleum depletion, including hybridcars, electric cars, bio diesel, hydrogen based cars, etc. However, noneof these solutions were effective. One reason for this lack of successis that they require a completely new infrastructure for the productionof the engines, as well as the production and distribution of the fuel.Moreover, the most solutions proposed so far were incompatible with theexisting engines and, therefore. The cost of replacing all the existingfossil burning engines may be so high that it may render any solutionbased on alternate fuels unacceptable, at least, in a short term basis.

Water as a source of fuel has been suggested by many in the past andmany experiments have been conducted testing such systems. The basis ofsuch experiments is the fact that water can be separated in to hydrogenand oxygen and the resulting stoichiometric mixture can be fed in to aninternal combustion engine to generate power. However past experimentsyielded unsatisfactory results. The main obstacle for their success isbased on the fact that the energy required to separate the water intoits components is much greater than the energy produce by the engine. Inaddition the amount H₂ mixture needed to run a typical automotive engineis too large to make such a system practical.

Systems are presently available on market that can be used asaccessories or add-ons to internal combustion engines using fossilfuels, however independent tests have shown that, in fact, these systemshave very little, if any, effect on the overall efficiency of theengine.

A system developed by the present inventors is described in twoco-pending applications includes means of generating from water andsupplying a small amount of hydrogen/oxygen gas mixture into a standardinternal combustion engine. (See U.S. Patent Application Publications2010/0122,902 and 2011/0203977). More specifically, these co-pendingapplications describe an efficient process and apparatus for generatinga two-to-one mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, commonly referred to asbrown gas or HHO. The mixture helps increase the efficiency of theconventional internal combustion engine by burning the fossil fuel moreefficiently. While this latter system is much more efficient thanpreviously described systems; its efficiency is still limited by theamount of hydrogen and oxygen produced on board a vehicle. Moreover, theinternal combustion engine described is still burning a fossil fuel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly, an internal combustion engine includes a cylinder with acombustion chamber having a variable volume as defined by areciprocating piston in a generally conventional manner. Hydrogen andair are initially fed into the combustion chamber. Then, a fuel in formof fine droplets of liquid are injected into the compressed combustionchamber. The resulting liquid/gas mixture is then compressed to a veryhigh pressure, which causes the temperature to rise, and an ignitiondevice causes combustion. The combustion results in hot and pressurizedgases that cause the piston to move and generate power. Advantageously,the fuel consists essentially of water and a flammable substance. Theflammable material is an alcohol, acetone, aldehyde or other flammable,preferably non-fossil substance that is soluble in water. (The termnon-fossil is used to refer to a fuel that is not derived substantiallyfrom fossil-base, non renewable materials, such oil or natural gas, butfrom a renewable source.) Preferably the fuel contains approximately10-40% flammable material by volume.

The system and method described herein can be adapted to any engine suchas rotary and jet engines and are not limited to a piston based as longas the engine can be used to implement the basic principle of theinvention. This basic principle includes (1) mixing hydrogen and airwith a solution of water and a flammable, water soluble fuel (2)compressing the mixture to a high pressure to create high heat and avery explosive mixture in a combustion chamber, and (3) igniting theexplosive mixture to cause the sudden expansion of such gases and theformation of steam thereby generating mechanical power.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the invention in which H₂, air and anaqueous solution forming a fuel is introduced directly into thecombustion chamber of the engine with the H₂ and the air beingintroduced through a common intake;

FIGS. 2A and 2B show sectional and side views of some elements of aninternal combustion engine constructed in accordance with thisinvention;

FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment in which the ingredients are firstmixed in a mixing chamber before exploding.

FIG. 4 shows a third embodiment of the invention in which air isintroduced trough the intake manifold and H₂ are introduced by way ofinjection directly to the compression chamber.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows an engine 100 constructed in accordance with thisinvention. The engine includes a cylinder 10, with a reciprocatingpiston 12 driving a shaft (not shown) through a linkage 14. For example,an experimental engine 100 was constructed by the inventors, bymodifying a generic, off the shelf 400 cc Diesel engine. The engine 100further includes a conventional air intake manifold 26 with an airintake 28 and a butterfly-type adjustment valve 30, an intake valve 64,an exhaust valve 66, an exhaust manifold 70 and a fuel injector 48.

In a conventional four cycle Diesel engine, air is sucked in throughmanifold 26 into the combustion chamber 50 of the cylinder 10 while thepiston 12 moves down. The intake valve 64 than closes, the piston 12moves up and a Diesel fuel is injected by the injector 48 into thechamber 50. The piston 12 compresses the mixture of air and fuel andcombustion occurs. The piston 12 then moves down to drive the shaft andmoves up again, and the exhaust valve 66 opens exhausting the remaininggases through the exhaust manifold 70.

The modified engine 100 further includes a hydrogen source 20. In oneembodiment, source 20 is implemented as a reactor that generates astoichiometric H₂/O₂ gas mixture (herein referred to as brown gas) fromwater using electrolysis process. An example of such process isdescribed in more detail in U.S. Patent Application Publications2010/0122902 and 2011/0203977. The brown gas is fed through a tube 22and a valve 24 into intake manifold 26. It should be understood that theamount of brown gas introduced into the intake manifold as compared tothe amount of air (that inherently also includes oxygen) is so smallthat the oxygen from the brown gas is negligible and can be ignored. Ineffect, the brown gas generator is used as a source of hydrogen.Obviously, other types of hydrogen generator can be used as alternativesto the brown gas generator as well.

The intake manifold 26 also receives ambient air through the air intake28 and, as will be discussed in more detail below, the amount of airflowing into the chamber 26 is controlled by the valve 30.

The engine 100 further includes a fuel tank 40 holding a fuel 42. Thefuel 42 is provided through a tube 44 by pump 46 to the fuel injector48.

The fuel in the fuel tank consists essentially of water and a flammablesubstance soluble in water. More specifically, it is believed that theflammable substance should be 30% soluble in water by volume. Theflammable substance may include, alcohol, acetone, aldehyde and othersimilar, preferably non-fossil substances or mixtures thereof. In apreferred embodiment, the flammable substance is an alcohol selectedfrom iso-propyl alcohol, iso butanol, propyl alcohol, butyl alcohol,ethyl alcohol, methyl alcohol or a mixture of such alcohols.

Alternatively, the flammable substance is one of formaldehyde,acetaldehyde, butyraldehyde, benzaledehyde, cinnamaldehyde,tolualdehyde, furfural, retinaldehyde, glyoxal, malondaldehyde,succindialdehyde, glutaraldehyde, phtalaaldehyde or mixtures thereof.

The concentration of the flammable material can be in the range of5-40%, and preferably 10-35%. The inventors have found that, inparticular a mixture of about 70% water to 30% isopropyl alcohol isparticularly advantageous in that it provides a favorable cost vs.performance characteristics.

The fuel 42 from the fuel tank 40 is provided to the fuel injector 48 bypump 43 at a pressure in the range of 200-3,000 psi. In one embodiment,the fuel is injected at a pressure of about 2000 PSI. Systems have beenproposed in the past in which water has been separated via electrolysisinto H₂/O₂ mixture and then was fed in to the engine intake system. Themain fuel used in such known engines was a fossil fuel. In the presentengine 100, the fuel 42 is essentially an aqueous mixture of a flammablematerial, preferably with no fossil components.

The engine 100 also includes a high-energy ignition system 60 providingelectrical current to an ignition device 62 (such as a standard sparkplug) extending into the chamber 50 as shown. The system 60 and sparkplug 62 are conventional components used for internal combustion enginesusing gasoline as fuel.

A timing controller 54 (typically including a microprocessor-not shown)receives input timing signals and a load signal indicative of the loadon the engine 100. The input timing signals are typically derived fromthe position of the crankshaft (not shown). The load signal isindicative of the load on the engine 100 are derived using conventionaltechniques. In response, the timing controller generates output timingsignals that control the operation of ignition device 62, fuel injector48, valve 24 and air intake valve 30, valves 64 and 66 open and close itcontrolled by a traditional camshaft (not shown).

Importantly, the engine 100 operates at a very high compression ratio.Typically, a conventional combustion engine operates at a compressionratio of around 15/1 to 18/1, except for some very special engines, suchas the engines used car racing. The present invention can be constructedto operate in the range of 10/1-40/1, and preferably in the range of25/1-35/1. An optimal compression ratio is about 30/1. This highcompression ratio can be achieved by shaping the head of the top of thepiston to reduce the volume of the combustion chamber. For example, asshown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the top surface of the piston 12 can be shapedwith an indentation 70. This indentation has a predetermined size andshape selected to provide the required compression ratio and to generateturbulence in fuel plume 52. For this purpose, the indentation 70 isplaced so that as the piston 12 is moves upward toward the top of thecylinder and the plume of fuel 52 is released by the fuel injector 48,the plume 52 using the shape of the surface of the indentation causingit to swirl.

In one embodiment of the invention, a single plume 52 is released by thefuel injector 48 in every intake cycle. In an alternate embodiment, 1-5plumes are released, depending on several variables, such as the type offuel being used, the load on the engine, ambient temperature, etc. Ifmore than the one plume is released, the first plume is released muchearlier than the combustion point, to enrich the vapor mixture in thechamber 50, and the other plumes are released just prior to combustion,as well during combustion.

The engine 100 operates in a manner similar to a standard four-cycleinternal combustion engine but with some important differences. Duringthe intake cycle, as the piston 12 moves downward, the valves 30, 24 and64 open to allow air and brown gas to enter into and mix in chamber 50.As explained above, the ratio of brown gas to the volume of the cylinderis very small by volume (about ½-2%), that the amount of O₂ in the browngas as compared to the amount of O₂ in the air is negligible and, andtherefore only the hydrogen (H₂) is of any real importance. Next, duringthe compression cycle, valve 64 closes, and the piston 12 moves upwardcompressing the gases in chamber 50. At a predetermined point, e.g.,typically at around 20 degrees btdc (before top dead center), a plume 52of fine droplets of fuel is injected into the chamber 50 by fuelinjector 48 and it mixes with the air/H₂ mixture. The piston 12 keepsmoving upward compressing further to a very high pressure andtemperature which create a very explosive content inside the combustionchamber 50. The mixture in chamber 50 is ignited (typically at top deadcenter) by spark plug 62 or other ignition device causing combustionthat converts the mixture within the chamber 50 into very hot and highlypressurized gases including steam. These gases force the piston 12 tomove down in the conventional manner. The next upward movement (exhaustcycle) of the piston 12 causes the remains of the combustion to beexhausted through manifold 70. These remains consist mostly of watervapor.

Surprisingly, at substantially no load, it was found that engine 100 canrun at 2500 RPM indefinitely, even when the air intake adjustment valve30 is closed, and therefore almost no air (and, very little oxygen) isprovided to the engine. Apparently, during the compression and/orexplosion stages least some of the water from the fuel disassociatesinto H₂ and O₂ and provides the oxygen necessary for the combustion. Theremainder of the water is apparently turning into steam.

As the load on the engine increases, the valve 30 should be opened;otherwise the engine is slowing down and can stops running. The amountof air being introduced through valve 30 is dependent on the load on theengine and, since apparently the air is not needed for the combustion,it is believed that, as the load increases, in order to maintain RPM andproduce power against the load, a higher torque is needed, the air isneeded as a working gas that create a higher combustion pressure whichintern create a higher torque when is pushing the piston down

The operating parameters of the engine 100 as described are as follows:

Compression ratio 30/1;

Fuel 70% water 30% iso-propyl alcohol at ambient temperature;

H₂ 2-10 l/min at standard atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature;

Air 0-50 l/min at ambient pressure and temperature.

Fuel pressure 200-3000 PSI

If multiple injections are used, the first injection or pilot consistsof 5-30% of the total fuel and the remainder is then rationed during thecombustion cycle.

While presently the exact phenomenon occurring in the cylinder portion50 during explosion is not fully understood, it is believed that some ifnot all of the water from the fuel mixture also disassociates in thecylinder into H₂ and O₂ and provides more fuel for conversion which istriggered by the H₂/O₂ that is fed in to the chamber, It was found thatthe process worked well when a volume of 2 ml. of the H₂/O₂ gas mixturewas provided to the engine for every revolution. Since the engine is a400 ml (or 400 cc) engine,. The amount of H₂/O₂ provided for eachrevolution is about ½-2% of H₂ by volume

As discussed above, the fuel is preferably a solution of water and aflammable liquid substance. In addition an additive can be added, suchas a non corrosive material that increase the conductivity of the waterat high pressure during combustion thereby helping the separation of thewater to H₂/O₂.

The techniques shown can be easily applied multiple cylinder, inaddition to a regular piston or a rotary engine, the invention can bedeveloped turbine and jet engine as well.

For example a conversion of a Diesel based engine is fairly simple, onlythe head is needed to be modified in order to introduce the ignitiondevice, a high power ignition system, the shape of the piston and thecombustion chamber to allow a suitable compression ratio, and a fairlysmall H₂/O₂ reactor (or other H₂ source) need to be added, making thissolution an inexpensive and simple to introduce to the market place.

Since water is practically available in any fuel station, no maininfrastructure needed to be created. The flammable substance can beautomatically mixed with clean water and fed in to the fuel tank of thevehicle.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment. In this embodiment, engine 200 is verysimilar to engine 100. The difference is that a novel mixing chamber 210is provided at the top of the cylinder 10 in communication with thecylinder portion 50 where the combustion takes place. The H₂/O₂ mixtureis fed by a second injector 220 into this mixing chamber 210 (ratherthan into the chamber 50). Thus, the mixing chamber 210 receives boththe fuel mixture 42 and the H₂/O₂ mixture, These materials mix with eachother and are sucked into the portion 50 when required through a channel230.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment 300. In this embodiment, the water fuelmixture and the H₂/O₂ mixture are both fed directly into the combustionchamber.

In other words, the H₂/O₂ mixture can be fed to the engine in threedifferent ways: into the manifold, into a mixing chamber, or into thecombustion chamber itself.

The present invention has several advantages. First, it makes use ofcommonly available renewable substances as fuel, instead of relying onnon-renewable fossil substances. It is believed that the invention ismuch more efficient and similar engines using on fossil-based fuels andcan generate more power. Third, during the experiments performed on theengine, the exhaust from the engine was very clean, minimal pollutionbeing observed, and even in a non ventilated area there was no visiblesmoke, nor did the inventor found any difficulty breathing.

Numerous modifications may be made to this invention without departingfrom its scope as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:
 1. An internal combustion engine comprising: a cylinder havinga combustion chamber and intake, said input manifold receiving a gasmixture of air and hydrogen; a piston moving axially through thecylinder to selectively change the size of said combustion chamber; afuel source selectively delivering fuel into said combustion chamber,said fuel consisting essentially of water and a flammable substance and;an ignition device being configured to selectively ignite the contentsof said combustion chamber to generate power;
 2. The engine of claim 1wherein said fuel includes 5-40% of said flammable substance.
 3. Theengine of claim wherein said fuel includes 10-35% flammable substance 4.The engine of claim 1 wherein said flammable substance is water soluble.5. The engine of claim 1 wherein said flammable substance is anon-fossil substance.
 6. The engine of claim 1 wherein said flammablesubstance is one of an alcohol, acetone and aldehyde or mixturesthereof.
 7. The engine of claim 1 wherein said flammable substance is analcohol selected from iso-propyl alcohol, isobutanol, propyl alcohol,butyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, methyl alcohol or a mixture of suchalcohols
 8. The engine of claim 1 wherein said gas mixture includesabout ½ to 10% hydrogen by volume.
 9. The engine of claim 1 furthercomprising a reactor generating brown gas from water, said brown gasbeing fed to said intake.
 10. The engine of claim 1 wherein said piston,cylinder and head are arranged to generate a compression ratio in therange of 10/1 to 40/1.
 11. The engine of claim 1 wherein said piston,cylinder and head are arranged to generate a compression ratio of 25/1to 35/1.
 12. A method of generating power comprising the steps of:introducing a gas mixture including hydrogen and air into a combustionchamber; introducing a fuel into said combustion chamber, said fuelconsisting essentially of water and a flammable substance; compressingthe contents of said combustion chamber; and ignited the compressedcontents of said combustion chamber forming hot compressed gases forgenerating power.
 13. The method of claim 12 wherein said flammablesubstance is soluble in water.
 14. The method of claim 12 wherein saidflammable substance is a non fossil substance.
 15. The method of claim12 wherein said flammable substance is selected from alcohol, acetoneand aldehyde.
 16. The method of claim 12 wherein said flammablesubstance is an alcohol.
 17. The method of claim 12 wherein saidflammable substance is an alcohol selected from iso-propyl alcohol, Isobutanol, propyl alcohol, butyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, methyl alcohol ora mixture of such alcohols.
 18. The method of claim 12 wherein saidflammable substance forms 5-40% of said fuel.
 19. The method of claim 12wherein said fuel consists essentially of 10-35% of said flammablesubstance.
 20. The method of claim 12 wherein further comprising apiston selectively compressing the contents of said combustion chamberat a compression ratio of 10/1-40/1.
 21. The method of claim 12 whereinsaid fuel is introduced into said combustion chamber at ambienttemperature.
 22. The method of claim 12 wherein said hydrogen isintroduced into said combustion chamber at ambient temperature.
 23. Themethod of claim 12 wherein said fuel is injected into said combustionchamber at a pressure in the range of 200-3000 PSI.